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Why we should get wireless in schools...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Okay, part of my task to be the most annoying student ever for my network manager, is to write up a nice long '6TH FORM - WIRELESS PROPOSAL'
I would like your views and comments on the following below so I can type up a big document, Submit it to the Head-teacher, and head of 6th form and him! :angel:
- Why would you want wireless?
- What would wireless do for the 6th form area?
- How does it help students?
- What sort of access could be given to students?
- How can students activity be controled?
- What mesaures can be put in place for security
(this is a hot topic for our N.M - He loves security)
Now obvisouly giving wireless in the 6th form area would mean that students could be in wireless devices, like laptop computers allowing them to work producivity and in a environment they are comfortable in !
- This ties in with my 'referb' plan as well
Thanks!
I would like your views and comments on the following below so I can type up a big document, Submit it to the Head-teacher, and head of 6th form and him! :angel:
- Why would you want wireless?
- What would wireless do for the 6th form area?
- How does it help students?
- What sort of access could be given to students?
- How can students activity be controled?
- What mesaures can be put in place for security
(this is a hot topic for our N.M - He loves security)
Now obvisouly giving wireless in the 6th form area would mean that students could be in wireless devices, like laptop computers allowing them to work producivity and in a environment they are comfortable in !
- This ties in with my 'referb' plan as well
Thanks!
0
Comments
Do 6th form students take their own laptops into colleage these days, back in my day the computer labs did the job...
Bringing wireless in for the 6th form area would promote E-Learning and keep students in school studying on computers and carrying out work etc.
Big long list to come, I'll post what I've got tonight but any tips or bits of text to include would be great!
I can't imagion a school spending 500K! Maybe 50K.
I hope you've got a techie mind, I've got 101 questions to ask you!
So you and your fellow students brought in your own laptops? How did that work then, as regards logging into shared drives, internet access. Or were the laptops connected to the domain?
So the 'hired' laptops, were you able to take those home and log onto 'This computer' Example below.
You say you could only log onto the shared area via http? But surely it asks' for passwords and what not?
Regards the whole fear of people bringing in there own laptops, i assume people do bring them in? But if you can't access the shared area through a mapped network drive, then surely there is no fear of crap being put onto the network?
EDIT
I've attached my document so far, Take a skim read
If I'm right bringing a personal laptop in, connect to the wireless, then to actually do anything network side/access the internet you would be presented with a login - Like you would for a normal workstation
so its like VPN then right?
Have you got anything on paper regards this laptop scheme? Sound's like a good idea the way your 6th form place has got it sorted out !
Its like a L, but the other way round...
Any who, yeah thanks for that - Are the laptops that are on 'loan' any decent? and what's the contracts like? *all these questions!*
Moving onto another subject real quick:
Personal laptops: How would they affect school networks, regards to the programs and files that are stored on there?
Could the fact of having an illegal program installed on there cause a problem for the school? Pros, Cons of the matter would be fab!
Because in my eyes, it's non of the schools business, as long as I'm working productivity then there's no problem - and it's not like the personal laptop is going to be audited, its NOT the schools
Having wireless definitely was beneficial in my college. It meant there were more computers available in the library because people could use networked college laptops, and even when those were all taken, you could still use your own laptop in the library/other areas to do work in when all the computers were taken.
Its also quite cheap.
For example
100 laptops @ £200 each = 20,000
Now, are the 'contracts' real contracts or just an agreement between a student + family with the school?
It sound's like a great idea but i'd have to read more into it before putting an idea like that forward haha
Illuminatus - Proper security measures could be put in place no?
Mac Address's for the laptops, any mac address that does not match the list, does not have access to connect.
Then if your laptop did connect, you'd then need to enter in your username & password which would gain you access to the internet.
Any flaws in the 3 step process?
Yes, and no.
The types of 'IT Professionals' that get employed in schools wouldn't know the first thing about properly securing a network and things are constantly changing. They think they can just throw money at a problem and install some sort of package that does everything for them and leave it to work.
That said, I doubt the majority of students would bother messing with anything but there's always one.
When I was at school it was me.
Personally I see no point. If students wanted to use the internet, they'd go into the rooms and use an ethernet cable or go home, or they'd even use the computers already IN the classes. From past experience, schools get ripped off. If they actually let someone who knew what they are doing, knew where to get the best hardware, and knew how to set it up properly, (also without mentioning they're a school!) then they'd get a cracking deal and it wouldn't cost so darn much.
Plus the laptops they usually offer aren't that great too.
But, just a question... is this wireless access on the premisis only? Or is it within a x mile radius? (My cousin lives round the corner from my old school and has a laptop from them, and he uses their wireless.)
On another side, it'd be easier just to have a login system, like in most colleges, where you can view your files on the college system from home through a portal.
Even 50k sounds way too high ....
Which is not on the ground floor and ideally would not cover miles, maybe a few feet from its location
This is where my proposal comes in, if I show and speak about the ways to protect the wifi and implement security measures. Then it's a serious possibility.
But if anyone knows of ways to secure it even more then be my guest!
Also any other pros and cons to wireless and using it, including using personal laptops
So I've got like 101 things to do tonight + that! ahhh its manic!
I submitted both proposals and came back an hour later, once he had time to go over them.
Loves the ideas, ect and the potential of it, sooner or later wireless was going to be on the cards.
I even spoke about the laptop contract idea. Likes the idea, but it would need to go in more detail. the idea specially helps out those who can not afford to buy a 400-600 $$$ laptop.
I've been given a booklet about seeking the money from the local goverment, has to be in the end of october but need to speak to the head and get premission to improve the area!
So I'm officially 'Heading up the project!'